Letter to Richard Stegemann, May 5, 1885

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 5 May 1885


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVII, Moscow, 1935
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO RICHARD STEGEMANN

IN TÜBINGEN

[Draft]

[London,] 5 May 1885

Dear Sir,

Mature reflection has shown that I cannot possibly comply with your request.[1]

Either the work you want must be short, in which case it could contain nothing but asseverations on my part, and thus merely be assertive and belletristic.

Or I should have to supply documentary evidence, in which case it would turn into a book, and that would not suit your purpose; moreover, I could not write it in so off-hand and casual a manner, for which my material is far too abundant.

A further consideration is that I should be more or less committing myself to co-editing a work about which I know nothing save the brief account provided by you.

In addition, the thing would — within the limits prescribed — be utterly useless. However vigorous my protestations, they would utterly fail to move the semi-educated vulgarian whose prejudices you wish to combat. People who say that Marx 'died friendless' must, presumably, harbour the belief that I do not exist at all. In which case, what magical effect could asseverations on my part be expected to have?

The old fairy-tales invented by the vulgar democratic emigration of 1850-59, and further elaborated by Bonaparte's paid agent, Karl Vogt,— il lui a été remis en 1859[2] 40,000 frs, according to the Tuileries papers,[3] may perhaps be more in vogue in your district than elsewhere because the Swabian People's Party is the direct descendant of that same democratic emigration, certain of its leaders having been on intimate terms with the afore-mentioned Vogt. Since all this was dealt with by Marx in Herr Vogt, there would seem to be no reason for me to hark back to it at this particular juncture. Vast numbers of lies were told about Marx to which he never saw fit to reply. The time may, perhaps, come when it will behove me to do so on his behalf, but the choice of time, place and modus operandi will be my affair. Which will, of course, only serve to revive my reputation for 'callousness'.

In any case, I haven't got time just now to do anything along these lines that would either be to the purpose or satisfy my own requirements in regard to such a work. My entire time is taken up with editing Marx's manuscripts, and I shall be acting wholly in his spirit if, in view of this obligation, I treat all this philistine carping with contempt.

I remain, Sir, very sincerely

  1. ↑ This letter is Engels' reply TO RICHARD STEGEMANN's second request (see Note 371) that he write a short personal description of Marx for a work Stegemann was preparing on the latter's economic doctrine. Stegemann justified his request with a need to reply to the efforts being made by bourgeois authors in various countries to distort Marx's personality.
  2. ↑ in 1859 he was paid
  3. ↑ Tuileries documents is the name Engels gives to the lists of agents in the pay of Napoleon III found in the Tuileries in 1870 and published by the government of the Third Republic in September 1871. Under the letter 'V' was the note 'Vogt — in August 1859 has been sent a remittance of 40,000 francs.' This bore out Marx's assumption that Karl Vogt was a Bonapartist agent (see K. Marx, Herr Vogt; present edition, Vol. 17, pp. 190, 212). Engels wrote about this document in the article 'Once Again "Herr Vogt"' published in May 1871 (see present edition, Vol. 22, p. 303).